1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for rendering documents, and in particular to a system and method for improving the throughput in rendering impositioned documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Impositioning refers to the process by which multiple pages are printed on a single sheet of paper in a particular order so that they come out in the correct sequence when cut and folded. The printing of an impositioned document typically involves manipulation of the document, printing, making adjustments to render the document as desired, reprinting the document, making additional adjustments. This process is repeated until the document is rendered as the user desires.
This process reduces the productivity, especially because the time to reprint can be lengthy. Further, the process of sending multiple versions of large documents such as books (which comprise a large subset of documents that are printed with impositioning techniques) creates excessive network communications traffic from the impositioning client to the print server, and from the print server to the printer. Also, it can be difficult to enforce version control to keep up with a multitude of documents with small changes. There is no automated way to assure that changes are reflected in the imposed document other than sending all the data again. This further reduces productivity during the time the user is waiting for reprints.
Further, in many cases, it is desirable to include variable data in impositioned documents. For example, it may be desirable to print a book wherein each copy of the book includes customized data in particular fields. Current impositioning systems do not support the efficient use of variable data.
What is needed is a system and method for improving throughput in printing impositioned documents. The present invention satisfies that need.